"And wheat bread is probably a lot healthier than rice, even brown rice."
No dice. Wheat and rice have a similar nutritional profile, however the more grains are processed, the more nutritional value they lose. Bread made from bleached flour is about as nutritional as sugar water; this is why it has to be fortified with vitamins, which sound pretty on the label but aren't actually digested the same way as they would be if the wheat was processed less. Rice (even white rice) beats out bread every time.
Being European, and having been raised with consuming milk/cheese/yogurt products daily, I was stunned to learn that most people of the world are lactose intolerant, and have hard time digest milk.
Also, we Europeans do use bread a lot. And wheat bread is probably a lot healthier than rice, even brown rice.